Question for those that are questioning: IF dooma didn't have financing, didn't really want the car, etc...WHY ON EARTH would HIS lawyer post a letter damning Dooma's case? IMO, nothing would have been posted except maybe some mud on onto BMW, again. IMO posting the letter shows that Dooma and his lawyer aren't going to hide behind threats from this dealership. They have let us see the cards the dealer is playing.

Good luck Ken, we are rooting for ya

Exactly...if Ken were a tool (and he is NOT)..then we would have never heard from him again...but he shares with us a very unflattering letter...

I see this for what it really is...the big bully car dealer who could care less about bad PR, because 99.99% of the potential car market could care less..they just put enough misinformation out there to create a smidgen of doubt...and keep doing business as usual...

Not to get too political...but we started a WAR based on lies and misinformation...and 99.99% of america could care less...

Why should this be any different...

Ken...walk away...you are playing with fire now...I am not a lawyer but have a lot of experience with litigation...there is no upside to this for you...

Looks like the masses might have to have a paypal acct to help Dooma out with legal fees, I mean if each person of the 200,000 donates $5 dollars that would be $10,000,000 think that would put a pretty good dent in the cost!

Count me in - where do I send the money?

No time to be proud Dooma, we all played our little part in this, now it looks like its come to the crunch.

Your next post should include your Paypal account details.

It's time for everyone to show some real support.

It's no good us all encouraging you and writing clever dick comments about what's happening and then expecting you to carry the can alone.

It is certainly unexpected to see corporate counsel for a $6B corporation
show-up on a public forum like this.

Until Ken posted the letter, Mike's name was not common knowledge.
A.N.Y.O.N.E. could have created the account "Michael Maledon." At the
moment, there is no reasonable way to authenticate that this poster is
indeed who he claims to be.

VTAIG has an entire separate business for advertising, PR and
communications. Typical corporations throw those mouthpieces into these
situations; if they show up at all. (Witness BMWNA's absence.)

But; VTAIG ain't your typical $6B business. It's privately owned. No
stockholders to which they must answer. No outside directors. Some
privately held corporations of this size behave in very unexpected manners;
at the whim of the principals (the Van Tuyl's and Holcomb).

So ... Michael Maledon ... how do we authenticate your participation here?

Mr. Moderator: Does the IPaddr logged for the Michael Maledon poster map
to a plausible Scottsdale/Phoenix address?

i'd like an ip check also.

VTAIG is privately owned ? well, it sucks now that the public is aware of their actions or tolerance/encouragement of such actions.

they could either sell the car at terms and take a loss, or never be able to sell a car again.

seriously, someone should be giving a small index car with this forum's thread URL to anyone potential customer that walks out of that dealership.

**guys, i'm new, but for the affiliated other dealerships, don't cause trouble directly. just pass the word out, and don't give your hard-earned income to any of the other dealerships owned by VTAIG.

they did the basic thing to customers, admit fault, apologize profusely as if they meant it and give additional credit to customer with monetary value (all of these ideas are taken from consumerist post). Look at all the love that Netflix is getting from a simple, honest and sincere gesture.

Husker, think how different the situation would have been if you had Netflix's attitude. (Not saying you have to resolve it in the same way, but the attitude)

i agree. giving a small concession is a BIG gesture (take the hint cornhusser).

UNREAL, but not expected to be honest. I am fortunate to have dealt numerous times with an upstanding and honest dealer whom I return to even though I live out of state (Strong Audi/Porsche in SLC, Utah) and have not had to deal with this kind of garbage.

Ken, everyone is pulling for you (well, most everyone) and I hope is gets resolved soon one way or another. This has to be very stressful at the least.

On behalf of Husker BMW, the following is an update on this situation.

Per the conditions of the eBay auction, the successful bidder is required to purchase the vehicle within 72 hours. After acknowledging its initial mishandling of the situation, Husker gave Mr. Tanisaka another fresh 72 hours to consummate the transaction at the $60,000 bid price. There were absolutely no conditions attached to that offer.

This 72 hour period has now expired. Husker BMW will agree to extend the time period for Mr. Tanisaka to purchase or lease the vehicle until the close of business on Monday, March 31, 2008, which is now the dealership's second 72 hour extention of the time period.

There have been baseless details reported concerning the dealership’s handling of these negotiations. The fact of the matter is that Mr. Tanisaka has supplied the dealership with no financial information, and refused to allow the dealership to assist his efforts to obtain financing. Contrary to statements made, Mr. Tanisaka has never presented the dealership with pre-approvals from Capital One, BMW, or any other financing source. Instead, Mr. Tanisaka chose to seek leasing terms through a financial institution of his selection. Husker has attempted to accommodate Mr. Tanisaka at every turn, including providing everything requested by his outside financing company in a timely manner, but no funding has been received. While Husker does not intend to suggest that Mr. Tanisaka does not have the financial wherewithal to consummate this transaction, any inferences that Husker has been delaying his consummation of the transaction are entirely unfounded. In fact, Mr. Tanisaka has routinely been dealing very cooperatively with Husker’s sales manager and has been very complementary toward him. Another unreported fact is that, as a gesture of goodwill, Husker offered to pay to fly Mr. Tanisaka to Lincoln to take delivery of the vehicle, and also offered to pay the costs associated with shipping the vehicle in a covered truck from Lincoln to California.

Husker does not seek to silence or in any way limit the rights of those who wish to express their opinions on this now widely publicized ordeal. But based on several reckless distortions and omissions of fact, the dealership and its employees have been grossly mischaracterized. Husker acknowledges and commends the comments posted by Mr. Tanisaka, his attorney, and the many others that have requested the personal attacks to cease. Husker would ask Mr. Tanisaka to go one step further and provide his truthful commentary on his agreement, or disagreement, with the statement of facts set forth above.

Husker will hold the vehicle in inventory for Mr. Tanisaka until the end of business Monday. For the sake of all involved, Husker BMW would like nothing more than to have this saga end with Mr. Tanisaka proudly driving his new E90 M3 and showcasing his “Husker BMW” plate frame throughout Southern California.

li·bel /ˈlaɪbəl/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[lahy-buhl] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation noun, verb, -beled, -bel·ing or (especially British) -belled, -bel·ling.
–noun
1. Law.
a. defamation by written or printed words, pictures, or in any form other than by spoken words or gestures.
b. the act or crime of publishing it.
c. a formal written declaration or statement, as one containing the allegations of a plaintiff or the grounds of a charge.
2. anything that is defamatory or that maliciously or damagingly misrepresents.
–verb (used with object)
3. to publish a libel against.
4. to misrepresent damagingly.
5. to institute suit against by a libel, as in an admiralty court.

While this thread technically fits the basic definition of libel, this is not an actual circulated medium. Users must register to post here, or actively seek out information from this source.

Also, I believe that in order to sue for libel, you must first be able to prove that the individual actually printed/published misleading or false information. As I stated earlier, I feel there was really no motive for Dooma to begin this thread with fake info; he was merely seeking advice for a situation that occurred on eBay.

A few minutes ago, the thought also occurred that most of the publicity was not actually Ken's fault. Some of us forwarded this thread to other sources (fark.com, autoblog.com, consumerist.com, The Lincoln Journal Star, etc. etc.), and spread the word. I fail to see how they expect to prosecute this case with so many anonymous individuals involved.

On behalf of Husker, let me be clear that we do apologize for the auction screw-up. The $67,995 figure was meant to be the reserve, not the “buy now” price. Our mistake. No excuses. Once the GM gathered the facts, we told the successful bidder on Monday morning that we would honor his $60,000 bid price.

We have been trying to work cooperatively with Mr. Tanisaka to complete this transaction. Obviously Husker is highly motivated to get the deal done and has no reason to further delay with all of the publicity that this has received. But until the bid price is tendered to the dealership, the deal remains undone. We disagree with Mr. Tanisaka’s version of the facts as to why this delay is taking place, but nevertheless Husker is committed to completing the deal with him as soon as possible. If Mr. Tanisaka cannot or chooses not to complete the transaction, then Husker will indeed keep the vehicle priced at $60,000 for the next willing buyer.

tell your client that he's doing the same thing...ignoring a bid and now, ignoring or rejecting valid payment -- so that it doesn't count.

if the dealership is earnest, cover the expenses for airfare and basic amenities to accept payment in person. think about it..if your client goes broke, do you still get paid ? and worse than that, you'll add a loss to your win/loss ratio.

ya know, i think its bout time dooma take a trip. i'll bet they'll be betting against him that he won't make the trip. bring the local news station and lets see if this thing can get done in person in front of the press.

I began reading this story regarding an M3 auction when there were only twelve pages. By the time thirty pages had been posted, I decided that there must be some respectable dealerships out there. I then realized how much we need a tool that would help us stay away from disreputable dealerships and ensure that we take our business to highly regarded places.

By page fifty-four, I started work on www.thetopcardealers.com with the intent for it to become an arena where recent car buyers can rank and vote on the top car dealerships. Potential car buyers would then be able to make a more informed decision as to where to take their business to get the best treatment possible.
So, Ken congrats on getting your car and in leading a successful fight to get what you deserved from the beginning. Darnit! It seems like you are still having trouble… I just sent you a PM.

Guys, it is up to page 93 now, and www.thetopcardealers.com is out in the open. I need you guys to fill the site in with your experiences from dealing with fine and not so fine dealerships. Hopefully we can someday become as viral as Ken’s story is, and we can accomplish the following goals:
- Be the foremost reviewer and ranker of The Top Car Dealerships not only in North America but across the globe.
- Reward the fine car salespeople and dealerships out there with more traffic from potential car buyers.
- Protect potential car buyers from dealing with dealerships or salespeople that might make us go through the stress that Ken is going through and many others have gone through before.

While this thread technically fits the basic definition of libel, this is not an actual circulated medium. Users must register to post here, or actively seek out information from this source.

Also, I believe that in order to sue for libel, you must first be able to prove that the individual actually printed/published misleading or false information. As I stated earlier, I feel there was really no motive for Dooma to begin this thread with fake info; he was merely seeking advice for a situation that occurred on eBay.

A few minutes ago, the thought also occurred that most of the publicity was not actually Ken's fault. Some of us forwarded this thread to other sources (fark.com, autoblog.com, consumerist.com, The Lincoln Journal Star, etc. etc.), and spread the word. I fail to see how they expect to prosecute this case with so many anonymous individuals involved.

They can't. It would cost them untold amounts of money to find and sue that many people. And also, most of the people whom they would sue are outside of the jurisdiction of the courts in which they would sue. So it's basically a BS scare tactic.